Candle Trivia
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50 free Candle trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-five candle trivia questions for quiz nights, candle lovers and anyone curious about the small flame that lit the world for two thousand years. The quiz covers how candles were made, from Roman tallow to sperm-whale spermaceti and the paraffin that replaced them, how a wick actually works, and the men who industrialised the candle. Then it moves through candle traditions: birthday cakes, the Hanukkah menorah, Advent wreaths, Candlemas and Groundhog Day, Saint Lucy's crown, Kwanzaa's kinara and the Paschal candle. Pop culture gets its turn too, with 'Candle in the Wind', Yankee Candle, the Cluedo candlestick, candlepin bowling, candlestick charts and Faraday's Christmas Lectures. Questions run from easy to expert and each carries a difficulty score. Every answer has been checked against a Wikipedia article and each question links to its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Paraffin wax, the most common candle wax, is a by-product of what?
Petroleum refining
A Scottish chemist worked out how to distil paraffin wax from coal and oil shale in the 1850s, and it burned cleaner than tallow.
Q 02Roman dipped candles were made from beeswax and which animal product?
Tallow
Tallow is rendered beef or mutton fat; it was cheap, smoky and smelled of the farmyard.
Q 03Some of the earliest Chinese candles, from before 200 BC, may have used which animal's fat?
Whale
Two thousand years later another whale product would give the West its brightest candles.
Q 04Which superior candle wax of the 18th century came from the head of the sperm whale?
Spermaceti
A single whale's head could hold up to 1,900 litres of it, and Nantucket fortunes were built on the trade.
Q 05What does a candle wick use to draw melted wax up into the flame?
Capillary action
The wax itself is the fuel; the wick just delivers it, which is why an untrimmed wick smokes.
Q 06Roughly what is the average temperature of a candle flame?
About 1,000 C
The hottest zone reaches around 1,400 C, hot enough to melt aluminium.
Q 07Who introduced the plaited (braided) wick in 1825, ending the chore of constantly trimming candles?
M. Cambaceres
A braided wick soaked in mineral salts curls into the flame's edge and burns itself away.
Q 08Joseph Morgan's 1834 machine could mould roughly how many candles per hour?
1,500
Continuous production is what turned candles from a luxury into an everyday household item.
Q 09Which harder, brighter-burning substance did Chevreul and Gay-Lussac separate from animal fat in 1823?
Stearin
Their 1825 patent produced candles that stood up in summer heat, and stearin is still blended into candles today.
Q 10Which Scottish chemist distilled paraffin wax from coal and oil shale in the mid-1850s?
James Young
His bluish-white wax burned clean with no smell, and 'Paraffin' Young became a very rich man.
Q 11The SI unit of luminous intensity is named after the candle; what is it called?
The candela
An ordinary wax candle gives out roughly one candela, and the unit grew out of the old 'candlepower'.
Q 12The Victorian unit 'candlepower' was defined by the light of a single pure candle made of what?
Spermaceti
The Metropolitan Gas Act of 1860 wrote the whale-wax candle into British law.
Q 13Which English king is said to have measured time with six marked candles that each burned for four hours?
Alfred the Great
Each candle was 12 inches tall and marked every inch, so one inch of wax meant 20 minutes.
Q 21According to tradition, a birthday wish comes true only if what happens?
All the candles go out in one breath
One theory traces cake candles to Greeks honouring Artemis, though the link is unproven.
Q 22How many branches does a Hanukkah menorah have?
Nine
Eight hold the nightly lights and the ninth is the helper used to light the rest.
Q 23What is the helper candle on a Hanukkah menorah called?
The shamash
It must sit on a different level from the eight main lights.
Candlemas, when churches bless the year's candles, falls on which date?
Q 14Al-Jazari's 1206 candle clock is the first known device to use which light-bulb-style fastening?
A bayonet fitting
The earliest reference to candle clocks of any kind is a Chinese poem from AD 520.
Q 15Elton John's original 1973 'Candle in the Wind' was a tribute to whom?
Marilyn Monroe
Bernie Taupin rewrote it in 1997 for Diana, Princess of Wales, and Elton has performed that version in public only once.
Q 16Roughly how many copies has 'Candle in the Wind 1997', the best-selling single since charts began, sold?
33 million
It was released two weeks after Diana's death, and every royalty went to her charities.
Q 17Where did Elton John give his only public performance of 'Candle in the Wind 1997'?
Westminster Abbey
He sang it at Diana's funeral on 6 September 1997 and vowed never to sing it again unless her sons asked.
Q 18Yankee Candle, America's largest candle maker, was founded in 1969 in which state?
Massachusetts
Michael Kittredge started it in South Hadley; the flagship store in South Deerfield has a candle museum and a year-round Christmas village.
Q 19For how much did Jarden buy Yankee Candle in 2013?
$1.75 billion
Newell Rubbermaid then bought Jarden in 2015, folding the candle giant into Newell Brands.
Q 20The custom of candles on a birthday cake is traced to Kinderfest celebrations in which country?
Germany
A 1746 party for Count von Zinzendorf had a cake with one candle per year of his age and one in the middle.
2 February
In many countries Christmas decorations traditionally stayed up until this day.
Q 25Which American folk holiday grew out of German Candlemas weather lore?
Groundhog Day
In the old country the shadow-caster was a hedgehog; Pennsylvania's Germans substituted a groundhog.
Q 26Michael Faraday's famous 1848 Christmas Lectures for young people took what as their subject?
The chemical history of a candle
He founded the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures in 1825, and they are still given every year.
Q 27Candlestick charts were developed in the 18th century by traders in which commodity?
Rice
Munehisa Homma of Japan usually gets the credit; Steve Nison brought the charts to the West in 1991.
Q 28The candlestick is one of the six original weapons in which 1949 board game?
Cluedo
Anthony E. Pratt's game gave it a dagger, lead piping, revolver, rope and spanner for company.
Q 29In which US state was candlepin bowling, with its tall thin pins, invented in 1880?
Massachusetts
Justin White's Worcester game gives three balls a frame, and nobody has ever bowled a sanctioned 300; the record is 245.
Q 30Which Pacific fish is nicknamed the candlefish because a dried one can be lit like a candle?
The eulachon
Up to 15 percent of its body weight is fat at spawning time; the trade in its oil created the 'grease trails' of the Northwest.